about getting the feet pretty near together and parallel, or with the toes turned out only a very little.  In another couple of days a little more severity may be exercised about maintaining the correct attitude,—­heels touching, hands hanging down, and eyes looking straight forward,—­and until he is able to do this easily it is best to ask nothing more.  Then he is requested to stand on one foot, being permitted just to touch a chair-back or the attendant’s hand to give confidence.  This is practised until he can keep his erect station for a few seconds without difficulty.  This point of improvement may be reached in three days or a week or may take a fortnight.  Women, as I have before observed, although rarely in America the victims of tabes, when they do have it have far less disturbance of balance than men, and this is to be attributed to their life-long habit of walking without seeing their feet.  I have found in the few cases of ataxia in women that I have seen that they benefited much more quickly by these balance instructions than did men, though their other symptoms were in no way different.

Continuing every day the practice of all the previous lessons, movements are rapidly added as soon as station is better.  A brief list of them follows.  When the exercises grow so numerous as to take overmuch time, the simpler early ones may be omitted.

When the learner is able to stand on one foot, let him slowly raise the other and put it on a marked spot on the edge of a chair.  This, like all the other exercises, must be practised with both feet.

Stand erect without bending forward and put one foot straight back as far as possible.

Do the same sideways.

Stand and bend body slowly forward, backward, and sideways, with a moment’s rest after each motion.

Having reached this point, I usually order the patient to practise all these with closed eyes.  When he can do this, he begins to take one or two steps with shut eyes, first forward, then sideways, then backward.  If he falter or move without freedom, he is kept at this until he does it confidently.  Then exercises in following patterns traced on the floor are begun.  In hospitals, or where bare floors are to be found, the patterns may be drawn with chalk.  In carpeted rooms, which by the way are less suited for the work than plain boards or parquet floors, a piece of half-inch wide white tape may be laid in the required pattern, first in a straight line, later, as proficiency is gained, in curved, figure-of-eight, or angular patterns.  The patient must be made to walk on the line, putting one foot directly in front of the other, with the heel of the forward foot touching the toe of the one behind.

Walking over obstacles is tried next.  Wooden blocks measuring about six by twelve inches and two inches thick are stood on edge at intervals of eighteen inches and the patient walks over them, thus training several groups of muscles; the blocks are at first set in straight lines, then in curving patterns.  An ordinary octavo book makes a good substitute for a block.